Rick Santorum: Rand Paul's "Not My Leader," GOP not a "Libertarian Party"
Via Andrew Kirell of Mediaite comes this snippet from Crossfire featuring former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio).
Van Jones asks Santorum about the current GOP frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nod, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Apoplexy ensues. The "Republican Party is not a libertarian party" says Santorum.
"Do you agree with his ideas, are you going to support Rand Paul?"
"There's diversity in the Republican Party," Santorum hesitated, but Jones pressed further: "Is he the new face of the Republican Party? Is this your leader?"
"Well, no, he's not my leader, I can tell you that for sure," the former senator scoffed. "His father and I had some disagreements during the last campaign."
Jones then asked him outright: "If a libertarian like him becomes the leader of the Republican Party — gets the nomination — would you vote for them?"
"First off, I don't think that will happen," Santorum asserted, "because the Republican Party is not a libertarian party, it is a conservative party. And it will nominate a conservative, and not a libertarian."
Then just to drive home the difference between brand-ecch libertarians and conservatives, Santorum calls for increasing the minimum wage by a buck and tells Strickland (a total bum as governor the Buckeye State) that Obama's request to bump it more than that is a bad idea.
Wayback Machine: A year ago, Santorum was bitching and moaning about Rand Paul and the libertarians.
